Zero Emission Truck Taskforce: EIR release

Information requested

You asked for some factual information on the Zero Emission Truck Taskforce.

1. What date was the Zero Emission Truck Taskforce formed?
2. What is the total cost of the Zero Emission Truck Taskforce to the Scottish Government from the date of its formation to 4/10/23?
3. Is there any catering cost associated to this group? If so what is it?
4. Are members renumerated in anyway?

Response

As the information you have requested is 'environmental information' for the purposes of the Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004 (EIRs), we are required to deal with your request under those Regulations. We are applying the exemption at section 39(2) of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 (FOISA), so that we do not also have to deal with your request under FOISA.

This exemption is subject to the 'public interest test'. Therefore, taking account of all the circumstances of this case, we have considered if the public interest in disclosing the information outweighs the public interest in applying the exemption. We have found that, on balance, the public interest lies in favour of upholding the exemption, because there is no public interest in dealing with the same request under two different regimes. This is essentially a technical point and has no material effect on the outcome of your request.

Response to your request

The answers to your questions are as follows:

1. What date was the Zero Emission Truck Taskforce formed?

The inaugural meeting of the Taskforce was 4th May 2022.

2. What is the total cost of the Zero Emission Truck Taskforce to the Scottish Government from the date of its formation to 4/10/23?

The cost of the Taskforce to Scottish Government from the date of its formation to 4/10/23 is £74,744 + VAT.

This enabled the development of a series of detailed information papers for the Taskforce based on desk research and interviews with key stakeholders covering topics such as the developing technology and energy infrastructure required; scoping of zero emission HGV trials in the UK and Europe with links to published findings; an exploration of the elements that make up Total Cost of Ownership; and an overview of developing business models that enable the transition, among others. These papers are available at Zero Emission Truck Taskforce | Transport Scotland.

This does not include staff costs as this information is not held.

3. Is there any catering cost associated to this group? If so what is it?

No catering costs are associated with the group, all meetings have been online.

4. Are members renumerated in anyway?

Members are not remunerated in any way.

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance the Scottish Government does not have some of the information you have requested. Therefore we are only partially answering question 2 under the exception at regulation 10(4)(a) of the EIRs. The reasons why that exception applies are explained below.

Under the terms of the exception at regulation 10(4)(a) of the EIRs (information not held), the Scottish Government is not required to provide information which it does not have. The Scottish Government does not have the information on the total cost of the Zero Emission Truck Taskforce to the Scottish Government as staffing costs cannot be calculated. Colleagues work on a range of different workstreams throughout their day and as that work should be appropriate for their grade and role, there is no business need to record the hours spent on one particular project.

This exception is subject to the ‘public interest test’. Therefore, taking account of all the circumstances of this case, we have considered if the public interest in disclosing the information outweighs the public interest in applying the exception. We have found that, on balance, the public interest lies in favour of upholding the exception. While we recognise that there may be some public interest in information about the total costs of the Zero Emission Truck Taskforce, we are unable to provide this information.

About FOI

The Scottish Government is committed to publishing all information released in response to Freedom of Information requests. View all FOI responses at http://www.gov.scot/foi-responses.